James R. McDonough
Feb. 2006 - ?
"Today while I was upstairs in the hospital, the Major, and his herd were walking around the hospital. The major, said in a loud enough voice, a very sarcastic comment about the new 'Marine Secretary' and how we had better get this place spit shined before he came in wearing his white gloves. I said "Marine? I hope you don't think this man was a Marine, Major, he was in the Army. Mr. Intern Secretary is no Marine."
On February 10, 2006, Jeb Bush called for James Crosby's resignation and appointed James McDonough as the Acting Secretary of the FDOC. Perhaps because the department and it's leaders has been under intense scrutiny for a number of offenses, Jeb felt a military man would be best to command the rank and file. Although we will keep our eye on all changes, we will give Mr. McDonough the benefit of the doubt and welcome his presence as a sign of change. Kay Lee
From: Kay Lee
To: Secretary McDonough mcdonough.james@mail.dc.state.fl.us
Cc: James McDonough mcdonoj@eog.state.fl.us
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 2:56 PM
Subject: WELCOME to the FDOCSecretary McDonough
I'm not sure of your email address yet, so have sent this in two forms. I just wanted to take a moment and welcome you to the leadership role in the Florida Department of 'Corrections'. Jeb has handed you a very large plate. The department has been run by weak and foolishly criminal elements for a long time and is on the verge of being put under federal oversight. Perhaps your military background will be an asset. We hope so.
If you have a real desire to clean up the department, the families and advocates of change can be a real asset to you. However, up to now, the staff have been generally rude and dishonest with the public and have consistantly ignored our information. I hope that will change. Perhaps you would consider a citizen's review board, members to represent families and advocates as well as state and department members: A panel that has real authority to do surprise inspections and follow through on what they find.
As you must know by now, there are a lot of criminals wearing the uniform of the department. These people make the job more difficult and dangerous for their fellow workers and cause a lot of unnecessary and unfair grief to families and prisoners. We can help identify the ruffians, but thus far, many inspectors have failed to properly investigate because the former secretary was never interested in fixing the problems. I hope you can turn that situation around.
As for all the recent inmate problems, a reward system would do a lot to get inmates' cooperation. At this time there is a lot of punishment, but no rewards. It also makes the public less safe if the department does not follow through on rehabilitation. I know the budget is insufficient for education and programs, but if most of the graft and officer thievery can be controlled, I think you'll find it a great investment in public safety to use the saved money to rehabilitate and educate prisoners. I know everybody will feel a lot safer if these folks are coming out in better shape than when they went in.
I know you have a lot on your plate, but we'll be praying for and about you. Congratulations and Sympathy are in order.
With all due respect,
Kay Lee
kaylee1@charter.net
2683 Rockcliff Road Southeast
Atlanta, Georgia 30316
404-212-0690
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Making The Walls Transparent
https://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke
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EMPLOYEES' CONCERNS, MCDONOUGH'S ISSUES
About the Acting Secretary
James R. McDonough
Name Organization Phone Number Ext. Suncom City Mcdonough, James R GOV 850-488-9557 0217 278-9557 Tallahassee E-Mail Address: mcdonoj@eog.state.fl.us Jim McDonough is the new Acting Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections. Appointed by Governor Jeb Bush on the 10th of February, 2006, he is responsible to:
1) Protect the public, staff and inmates.
2) Develop staff committed to professionalism and fiscal responsibility.3) Ensure victims and stakeholders are treated with dignity, sensitivity and respect in making and executing administrative and operational decisions.4) Prepare offenders for re-entry and release into society.He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the United States Military Academy. He served a full career as a United States Army Officer before assuming his current position. During his active military service he held a number of key assignments, to include command at every level through brigade; senior military assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; Director of the School of Advanced Military Studies; and the principal author of the Army's central war fighting doctrine, Field Manual 100-5, Operations. He concluded his career in command of the Southern European Task Force (SETAF) Infantry Brigade (Airborne! ) with operational deployments to Africa (Rwanda/Zaire/Uganda) and the Balkans (Bosnia).
In addition to his military assignments, he served as an associate professor of political science and international affairs at the United States Military Academy, as an analyst with the Defense Nuclear Agency, and as a detailee to the U.S. State Department. In 1997 he was Editor-in-Chief of the National Defense Panel, a congressionally mandated Panel tasked with preparing a report on the challenges and opportunities of US defense strategy in the next century.
He is the author of a number of professional articles and has published three books: Platoon Leader (also a! movie), The Defense of Hill 781, and The Limits of Glory.
Among his military awards, Colonel McDonough holds the Defense Service Medal, two Legions of Merit, three Bronze Stars (1 Bronze Star for valor) and the Purple Heart. He is a combat veteran who holds the Senior Parachutist Badge, Ranger Tab, and Combat Infantryman's Badge.
McDonough was also Florida's very own Drug Czar a few years back.
RELATED ARTICLES
1999-Testimony of James R. McDonough Before the Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources--84KB
2000-Testimony 0f James R. McDonough Before the Government Reform Committee Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Downloadable word document---88KB
"With all that fancy education, why did McDonough settle on being the drug dog of Florida?"
"Kay Lee, I served six years in the Army and believe me an enlisted man has no love lost for the officer corps. However having said that, this man has "plenty" of experience dealing with the "troops." I advise any who don't believe me to rent the Vietnam movie called "Platoon Leader." That movie is based on the life of the new Secretary during his combat tour in Vietnam. He saw a lot of combat duty and I feel he can be nothing but good for the department. Oh, by the way a full bird Colonel is no rank to be sneezin' at. That's only one level down from a one star general. Here check this out--
In Platoon Leader, James McDonough described his tour as a young lieutenant with the 173d Airborne Brigade in 1971-72. The book provides a masterful description of the elements of good leadership during a particularly difficult period of the war. McDonough, like many other young officers in Vietnam, found himself completely alone, the only officer in a one platoon camp adjacent to a Vietnamese village. A West Point graduate, he was well trained, if inexperienced, and his self-portrait exemplified the best that the army had to offer. He focused his attention on the two areas that virtually define good leadership at the small unit level: accomplishing his mission of destroying whatever military force the Communists sought to maintain in his area while doing his best to care for the men in his command.
To do his job well, he had to be attentive to a host of small details which, if neglected, would cost him and his men dearly. If he attended to them with care, however, he could transfer the costs to the enemy. Everything ha! d to be considered, not only tactics, but the various daily routines that contributed to the maintenance of the health and welfare of the unit. Were the men eating right? Were they taking their anti-malarial medicine? Were they cleaning their feet as well as their weapons? Were the claymores well positioned and checked regularly? Were the men alert on guard duty or patrol? Did they understand their mission? The questions went on and on.
McDonough gave particular attention to the question of what his men might legitimately expect from him and what he needed to do to establish his authority over them. As he wrote, "I could not 'manage' my platoon up a hill. I had to lead them up there," [3] and to accomplish that end he had to gain their respect. At the late date that McDonough went to Vietnam, many soldiers had already concluded that they did not want to be the last man killed in the war, and combat refusal, although not epidemic, was a potential problem facing any leader.
McDonough studied his men carefully. He "listened to their stories, their hopes, their gripes," not in an attempt to be their friend, but because they were his "prime resource" and because, as their lieutenant, he was expected to be interested in them. [4] He was their leader, and taking care of them was one of his primary responsibilities. Later, when he was wounded, he would remember that responsibility and recognize that "concern for myself would have to come later." [5]
Confronted with the problem of where he belonged physically (on patrol with a squad or in camp with the majority of the unit), McDonough reached a compromise, going out, on average, with every third patrol. He saw the importance of gaining first hand knowledge of both the terrain and the way his men operated in it. He also saw the importance of "sharing in the highest-risk operations" and the danger, if he did not, of slipping "into a defensive attitude" that might "eventually overtake the entire platoon." [6]
McDonough's experience was certainly not unusual, nor was it the unique province of West Point graduates. In a class at The College of Wooster, a young student asked Bob Romig, another lieutenant who had also led a platoon, what he had thought "about the war" when he was in Vietnam. Romig, a product of ROTC, answered the question as McDonough might have answered it, noting that he was too busy worrying about day to day problems such as whether the claymores were out or the men awake to think about the broader aspects of the war. He too was a good leader, doing his job well and thinking first and always about his mission and his men, even after he was wounded.
Unfortunately, the countless examples of good leadership exemplified by officers such as McDonough, Romig, and Donovan must stand beside examples of incredibly bad leadership and total incompetence. McDonough, for example, mentioned two platoon leaders very different from himself that he encountered early in his tour. One had become completely unhinged by his experience, turning into a maddened brute who found the killing "wonderful" and told McDonough that "in no time at all you'll have a collection of ears that will make those rear echelon mother fuckers green with envy." [8]
Another casualty of the war, the lieutenant that McDonough relieved, was a "blatant coward," who remained in his bunker while the men, whom he viewed as expendable, protected him. [9] Nothing is more damaging to the image of military leadership at the company and platoon level, however, than the story of the My Lai massacre and Lieutenant William F. Calley. Had Calley lost control of his men, the massacre would have been horrible enough, but Calley had done something even worse. He had lost control of himself, and as a result he led his men into an evil that shocked even some people accustomed to the horror and frustration of the war in Vietnam.
In contrast, McDonough recognized that an officer's responsibility to his men was even greater than the difficult, sometimes impossible task of keeping them alive. He saw that as an officer he also had a moral duty "to preserve their human dignity." As he wrote, "War gives the appearance of condoning almost everything, but men must live with their actions for a long time afterward. A leader has to help them understand that there are lines they must not cross. He is thei! r link to normalcy, to order, to humanity. If the leader loses his own sense of propriety or shrinks from his duty, anything will be allowed. And anything can happen."
So far, considerable space has been devoted to the positive example of good leadership presented by McDonough for two reasons. First, one must never forget that countless individuals, most of them anonymous, exhibited the traits of good leadership described in works such as Platoon Leader and Once a Warrior King. When one hears or reads the harsh words of criticism that can legitimately be used to describe much of the military leadership in Vietnam, one must not forget those other leaders who remained true to their mission and the people under them, who exhibited the very best leadership one could hope for in any war at any level.
In no war has every leader been successful, and one has no reason to expect that to be the case. Military leaders are human beings, subject to all of the tremendous variability of the species. Collectively, they manifest to differing degrees all of the individual human traits required for good military leadership: wisdom, competence under stress, bravery, even sanity. One focuses on the McDonoughs of the war because of the stark contrast between their often superb leadership and the all too frequent examples of poor leadership at the top that was responsible at least in part for the American failure in Vietnam.
The bad strategic choices of the high command were made worse by the equally bad managerial decision establishing the year tour of duty with a six month rotation between staff and command positions for officers. The results of the policy were catastrophic. McDonough noted the frustration of having to leave his men in the field at the very time when he was "the most battle-experienced platoon leader in the battalion." He also noted the "hypocrisy" of leaving men who "were there for a full twelve months or until incapacitated by wounds, illness, or death . . . for a relatively safe job at the battalion base camp." McDonough was convinced that "A leader does not leave his men." [27] The high command, however, believed otherwise...
Source: http://www.wooster.edu/History/jgates/book-ch6.html
Researched by BuzzC's Spot ~ http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-buzzcareysinfo
Jeb Bush Hires James McDonough
Bush in no rush to name a successor to Crosby
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughnorush.html
February 14, 2006Bush lauds interim DOC chief
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughlauded.html
February 15. 2006Quick fix not likely for woes at prisons
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughquikfix.html
Feb 18, 2006New head of prisons to restore ethics code
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughethics.html
February 19. 2006After scandals, new DOC chief demands reform
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughafterscandals.html
February 24. 2006FDLE chief's son, two other prison workers demoted, one suspended
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughtunnell.html
March 09, 2006DOC chief sheds light on probes
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughprobes.html
March 10. 2006DOC chief: 'Culture' change ahead
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughculture.html
March 10, 2006The new architect overseeing prisons
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonougharchitect.html
March 12, 2006DOC chief stresses respect for officers
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughrespect.html
March 15, 2006Tomoka warden promoted in prison-system shakeup
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughbryant.html
March 16, 2006Prison chief revamps employee funds, staff changes wind down
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughfunds.html
March 17. 2006Prisons' deputy assistant is forced to resign
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughdrake.html
March 17. 2006Prison culture: Softball, scandal
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughsoftball.html
March 18, 2006New corrections secretary vows to beat `good ol' boys
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/mcdonoughgoodolboys.html
March 18 2006
Guards made inmates lick toilets clean
https://www.angelfire.com/oz/today/licktoilets.html
May 9, 2007
Thank you Sec. McDonough for investigating, acknowledging, and attempting to honestly repair the problems in the department; Three virtues we see too rarely from state employees.
We are more than pleased to award you the MTWT
Gold Star of Professionalism.
Kay LeeKay Lee
kaylee1@charter.net
2683 Rockcliff Road Southeast
Atlanta, Georgia 30316
404-212-0690
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PEOPLE WITH INFLUENCE
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